The last time Liverpool visited Villa Park, it was with their first-choice back four. It was the last game Virgil van Dijk, world’s best central defender, completed and they conceded seven goals for the first time since 1963.
They return Friday – subject to the FA Cup tie going ahead, as there has been a coronavirus outbreak in the Villa squad - minus the injured Van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip, the three senior specialists in the position. October's 7-2 defeat has offered a different kind of scarring to Liverpool. Jurgen Klopp does not plan to reopen the wounds.
“I am not a big supporter of mentioning the obvious,” he said. “Everyone knows it is not four or five years ago so I don’t have to remind the players. I don’t plan on talking too much about the game we played there.”
Instead, Klopp focused on his makeshift defence. Two midfielders, Fabinho and Jordan Henderson, operated as centre-backs in Monday's defeat to Southampton. A week into a transfer window, Klopp is yet to get reinforcements at the back. The transfer market is unlikely to offer immediate salvation. Liverpool have financial constraints. They have lost around £100 million ($135.5m) due to Covid-19, a context that means they are unlikely to buy.
“If the world would be in a normal place, everything would be fine, we won the league, won the Champions League and the club is in the best possible situation and then you have three senior centre-halves, would you usually do something?” asked Klopp.
“Yes, definitely, but we are not in that situation. You maybe could do something but it would be a short-term solution and that is not right because it doesn’t help. Would one centre half help resolve our problems? For a game or two and then he could be injured.”
He hopes Joel Matip could be fit for next Sunday's meeting with Manchester United but the rookies Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips could be required at Villa Park on Friday. He did not complain about that. He knows sport cannot divorce itself from the realities of the global economy.
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Aston Villa 7, Liverpool 2
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“I don’t know why we constantly try to treat football like it is independent of all the struggles around,” Klopp said. “It is not the time for massive investment if you don’t have the funds for it. Football lives off the things we earn and we don’t have supporters in the stadium. We are still in the middle of a pandemic.”
Klopp has rarely looked for quick fixes. He underlined it is simplistic to see a fine defender at another club and assume Liverpool can recruit them. “A supporter may look at it and think 'they need a centre half and the other team has a good one so bring him in,'” he said. “I understand that but my job is not that. My job is to really to make the players we have here as strong as possible to deal with it.”
Klopp defended owners Fenway Sports Group for their reluctance to buy in January, saying he and they have identical views about what to do.
“In good times everybody thinks our owners are really generous and in bad times everyone thinks they are really tight but they are not,” he said. “They are absolutely concerned about the club and the success of the club and understand how we have it. So they see exactly the same things. These owners are just very responsible with the things we do.”
Klopp has long used his positivity to spur his side on and argued it would be an achievement against the odds to have a successful season without centre-backs as he looked to turn adversity into a rallying cry.
“It is the trickiest situation you can imagine - three senior centre-halves and they are all injured,” he said. “That doesn't happen a lot but it happens so we have to deal it. We cannot sort it now in the transfer market.
"The club tries what it can but if they can't then we have to do what we did so far, get stronger as a group, stick together more and fight against the world, if you want. Fight against the circumstances. Strike back with all you have and make it the most special season ever of it.”
